McGuinness delighted with Macau pace so far

John McGuinness says he’s understandably delighted with his 2015 Macau Grand Prix pace so far, topping the first of the race’s two qualifying sessions after being denied P1 in practice by only 0.05.

Running the Honda Fireblade TT machine that he admits to loving, the Morecombe Missile seems to have found something special this year around the Guia circuit – but says it’s all down to comfort so far.

“It’s the first time I’ve been on pole for a long time, and I feel comfortable. I’m enjoying riding the bike, and it feels like I’m at home – I’ve been coming here a long time now and I’ve got a lot of experience with the bike.

“We’ve been trying a few different ideas for the bike, and it seems to be working, so hopefully we can keep it up now – I’d love to stand on the podium again! That would be really sweet, but we’ll have a good sleep tonight, crack on tomorrow and see what the day brings!”

However, as rivals Michael Rutter, Ian Hutchinson and Stuart Easton continue to experiement with machine setup on bikes none of them have rode at Macau before, it remains to be seen if the veteran can hold them off for tomorrow’s second session.

Taking to the track at 0730 local time (2330 UK time) for the second session, cooler temperatures should help with machine set-up, after today’s 1545 session saw track temperatures spike to almost 50ºC.